


Penrose - Ashen

by X15lm204



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Alternate Session, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-01-12
Updated: 2011-01-12
Packaged: 2017-10-14 17:14:11
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 794
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/151596
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/X15lm204/pseuds/X15lm204
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Two weeks into an alternate session of SBurb, the Courtyard Droll has had quite enough of war.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Penrose - Ashen

> Be one of the Midnight Crew.

You are now the Courtyard Droll.

The only member of the crew left live.

Huh. Not much of a crew anymore.

Not that you were much of a crew at all for the last few days.

====>

You should have known this would happen when Noir left the Brute to die fighting the White King’s bodyguards.

You should have known this would happen when the Dignitary took what he thought was your prize and threw you off a cliff in the Land of Rock and Rain.

====>

You’re still speechless when you find the Archagent with the Draconian Dignitary’s spear in his back, and the Dignitary himself spitted on the Black Queen’s blade.

====>

She takes the white scepter from the Dignitary’s lifeless hands, cuts it in half, and leaves, barely sparing the time to laugh mockingly at you, kneeling in the blood of your former friends.

You wonder if any of them realized that what they had was a fake, and if that was what started the fight, or if your last remaining friends died for nothing but spite and ambition.

You suspect the latter.

> Retrieve JOKER from deck.

You examine the real WHITE KING’S SCEPTER.

This was what started this war? This little white stick with its eight small spheres and one large one? For this you and your friends braved death as you journeyed across three planets and eight Lands? This bit of nothing made the four best of friends kill each other for the honor of giving it to someone who would only claim it off a corpse?

You are beginning to think you’ve had quite enough of this war.

> Days later, but not many...

You return to the palace audience chamber to find that no one has bothered to clean up the corpses. However, you are not alone - the Mage kneels where you did not long ago, trying and failing to hide his tears behind a mask of fury, while the Rogue looks on in horror and confusion. The Knight and the Witch wait outside, unsure of what to do.

Finally showed up, have they? You were beginning to think they’d sleep through the whole game.

You don’t know the Mage well - he showed up for every show this year but tended to hang around Slick, Droog, and Boxcars more often than not. The Rogue, though she only made one show - your last - you know better. It was nice to find someone who really shared your sense of humor.

The reminder that you’ll never be Clubs Deuce again hurts more than you thought it would.

> Set EXPLOSIVE DEVICE.

You take out your TWO OF CLUBS and place it on the ground between the Archagent and Dignitary. This is your last Club from two whole decks. You wonder if anyone has found the others, or realized their significance if they did. You doubt it.

You hesitate for a moment, watching the Mage and the Rogue, before gesturing for them to follow you.

> Abscond.

You take the shuttle all the way to the Moon while you wait. The Knight and the Witch do their best to comfort the Mage, and he finally lets his tears flow freely sitting between them. You wonder if the “friends” he’s crying for really deserve it. You’re not sure you think so anymore.

The Rogue watches you for the whole ride, trying to come up with something to say. There is nothing to say.

====>

The five of you look out towards the eight spire of the palace from a small tower on the Moon.

As you sit with your legs dangling of the edge, you hope for the sake of the others that their friends on Prospit - the Thief, the Seer, the Bard, and the Heir - are not unlucky enough to be in or around their own palace at the moment.

BOOM

The spires, strengthened by prototyping, will not fall, but everyone within them is dead - the thousands of bureaucrats that make organizing the armies possible, the generals who issue commands, maybe even the Queens if you are lucky. Two armies have been brought to a screeching halt by one ever-underestimated Droll and two decks of cards.

> Retrieve JOKERS from deck.

You pull out the SCEPTERS, one in each hand. Their power flows through you, finally ready to be directed towards a worthy cause. As the children stare at you in shock, you fly down towards Skaia.

The soldiers will still fight, as they do. The Kings, though deprived of their scepters, still live, and will rally their troops.

This war will have to be ended by your hands.

One way or another.

They’ll all thank you for this, eventually.

> Years later, but not many...

A Capricious Derelict strolls across the desert sands...

**Author's Note:**

> We know that, given the power and the will to change the nature of the game, SS uses the power to slaughter anyone who so much as looks at him funny. So what would CD do with similar power and will?
> 
> Yeah, now someone has to take this to its natural conclusion and write about a session in which HB gets his hands on a ring or scepter and turns all of Skaia into one huge hippie lovefest.


End file.
